Jordan Site May Hold Oldest Church

Published: July 9, 1998

AMMAN, Jordan, July 8—
A basilica unearthed in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba may be the oldest church in Jordan -- and possibly the oldest building in the world designed for use as a church, archeologists say.

Until the structure was discovered in June, the earliest churches in Jordan were thought to date from the late fourth century.

Sawsan Fakhiri, director of the Aqaba Antiquities Department, said on Tuesday that the find was probably ''a church built in the late third century. But we need to study it closely before we come out with a resolute conclusion.''

Older churches have been found but they were originally used as houses.

Thomas Parker, a professor of history at North Carolina State University who is leading the 53 Jordanian and American archeologists and historians excavating the site, said that if the basilica did date from the late third century, it would be the oldest church in the world designed and built for that purpose.

Experts outside Jordan asked for more evidence. ''I certainly think it is very possible,'' said Alice Christ, a historian at the University of Kentucky. ''At that period, there should be buildings built specifically as churches.''

Another historian, Glen W. Bowersock of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., said, ''I would need to have coins that were third century and did not run into the fourth century, or inscriptions with a date.''